Galaxy Soho Award

Galaxy Soho, Beijing by Zaha Hadid Architects has been shortlisted for this year’s Lubetkin Prize by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Named in honour of Berthold Lubetkin who established the influential Tecton Group in London during the 1930’s, the Lubetkin Prize is awarded to the architect of the year’s best RIBA International Award winning building.

images : Hufton and Crow

In their citation when awarding Galaxy Soho with an International Award earlier this year, the RIBA said Galaxy Soho in Beijing to be “distinctly urban rather than suburban, civic as much as it is commercial… By breaking the building’s mass into four flowing asymmetric domes of varying height the design gets light into the deep-plan floor-plates. Each structure encloses a glazed atrium around which the internal circulation is arranged. Flowing bands of white aluminium and glass give the development an almost geological solidity and presence.”

The winner of the RIBA Lubetkin Prize will be announced on 26 September 2013.

11 Apr 2013

Galaxy Soho News

The Design Museum announces the seven category winners for the annual Designs of the Year Awards. The awards celebrate the best of international design from the last 12 months. The overall winner for the Design of The Year 2013 will be announced on Wednesday 16 April.

30 Oct 2012

Galaxy Soho Beijing

Design: Zaha Hadid Architects

Galaxy Soho Project

Zaha Hadid joined Soho China’s Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi, with 15,000 guests from China and around the world, to celebrate the completion of Galaxy Soho, Beijing.

image : Iwan Baan

image : Iwan Baan

“Working on Galaxy for Soho China was very exciting. The design responds to the varied contextual relationships and dynamic conditions of Beijing. We have created a variety of public spaces that directly engage with the city; reinterpreting the traditional urban fabric and contemporary living patterns into a seamless urban landscape inspired by nature,” explains Hadid. “The natural rhythms and flows of the city, of the environment and of the people have been integrated within the design to define its formal composition.”

images : Iwan Baan

Located in Chaoyangmen, central Beijing, Galaxy Soho is an ensemble of 4 building volumes which coalesce and fuse, pull apart and connect, via bridges and plateaus; creating a world of fluidity and movement within.

Access, circulation and sun-path movements have informed the design, allowing natural light to penetrate deep into the site and surrounding neighbourhoods.

With its inclusive, organic design incorporating innovative public spaces, all available units in Galaxy Soho were sold in 2011. Zaha Hadid Architects continue to develop the Wangjing (Beijing) and Sky (Shanghai) projects for Soho China.

This major project by London-based Zaha Hadid Archietcts will be ‘launched’ today. Following on from the critically-acclaimed Guangzhou Opera House by Zaha Hadid this will be the practice’s next major building in China. The studio is also working on Hongqiao Soho in Shanghai

images courtesy Soho China

The Galaxy Soho project in central Beijing for SoHo China is a 330 000m2 office, retail and entertainment complex that will become an integral part of the living city, inspired by the grand scale of Beijing. Its architecture is a composition of five continuous, flowing volumes that are set apart, fused or linked by stretched bridges. These volumes adapt to each other in all directions, generating a panoramic architecture without corners or abrupt transitions that break the fluidity of its formal composition.

6 Jun 2011

Galaxy Soho Building Beijing

Design: Zaha Hadid Architects

Galaxy Soho Development

The great interior courts of the project are a reflection of traditional Chinese architecture where courtyards create an internal world of continuous open spaces. Here, the architecture is no longer composed of rigid blocks, but instead comprised of volumes which coalesce to create a world of continuous mutual adaptation and fluid movement between each building. Shifting plateaus within the design impact upon each other to generate a deep sense of immersion and envelopment. As users enter deeper into the building, they discover intimate spaces that follow the same coherent formal logic of continuous curvelinearity.

The lower three levels of Galaxy Soho house public facilities for retail and entertainment. The levels immediately above provide work spaces for clusters of innovative businesses. The top of the building is dedicated to bars, restaurants and cafés that offer views along one of the greatest avenues of the city. These different functions are interconnected through intimate interiors that are always linked with the city, helping to establish Galaxy Soho as a major urban landmark for Beijing.